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Rod Dreher vs. transgender people

Rod Dreher is a conservative American author who frequently publishes anti-transgender articles.

Background

Raymond Oliver Dreher, Jr. was born February 14, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan and was involved in local politics through those connections.

Dreher earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Louisiana State University in 1989.

Dreher was a media critic for The Washington Times and New York Post before becoming an editor for the National Review.

The American Conservative

Dreher was a contributor to The American Conservative from 2008 to 2023. Dreher’s salary was covered by Howard Ahmanson, Jr., and his work had no editorial oversight.

According to Vanity Fair, the arrangement began to unravel in 2021, when Dreher published a vivid description of a Black elementary school classmate’s uncircumcised penis: “All us boys wanted to stare at his primitive root wiener when we were at the urinal during recess, because it was monstrous.” Two years later, Ahmanson had enough:

Some of Dreher’s commentary on the gay and transgender communities also proved off-putting to Ahmanson, such as his lurid musings on anal sex, rectal bleeding, and the “partially rotted off” nose of a gay man who contracted monkeypox. “At some point, he basically decided, ‘This is too weird,’” the source, paraphrasing Ahmanson, explained to me. “‘I don’t want to read this or pay for this anymore.’”

Dreher advocates for what he calls the “Benedict Option,” where conservative Christians segregate from sex and gender minorities via intentional communities.

Anti-transgender writings

The Guardian described Dreher as “a man who appears to view fomenting transgender panic more as a vocation than a job.”

Articles include:

  • The Coming Storm Over Trans ‘Tuskegee Experiment’
  • How GOP Helped Big Trans Conquer South Dakota
  • Trans Tyranny: The Dangerous New Phase
  • Building Trans America
  • The Cost Of Waging World War Trans
  • Trans Propaganda, Blue And Red
  • Trans Totalitarianism: Time For Moral Panic
  • This Diabolical Moment

References

Ecarma, Caleb (March 10, 2023). How Rod Dreher’s blog got a little “too weird” for The American Conservative. Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/rod-dreher-blog-weird-american-conservative

Wilson, Jason (July 28, 2017). ‘Biology is not bigotry’: conservative writers react to ban on trans troops. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/28/conservative-writers-trump-transgender-troops-ban-military-writing

Dreher, Rod (October 4, 2021). Gary Shteyngart’s ‘gentile region.’ The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/gary-shteyngart-circumcision-gentile-region/

), known as ,[1] is an American writer and editor living in a self-imposed exile[2] in Budapest, Hungary. He was a columnist with The American Conservative for 12 years, ending in March 2023, and remains an editor-at-large there.[3] He is also author of several books, including How Dante Can Save Your Life, The Benedict Option, and Live Not by Lies. He has written about religion, politics, film, and culture in National Review and National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.

He was a film reviewer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and chief film critic for the New York Post. His commentaries have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and he has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Court TV, and other television networks.[4]

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Books

  • Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (Or at Least the Republican Party) (2006)
  • The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life (2013)
  • How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem (2015)
  • The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (2017)
  • Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents (2020)